KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s actions as prime minister exposed Petronas assets abroad to legal seizure attempts by the descendants of the defunct Sulu sultanate, PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli insisted today.
Urging members of his party, others in the Opposition and Malaysians in general to lodge police reports against Najib over the matter, Rafizi said the former prime minister must bear responsibility for this.
Rafizi said all Malaysians were entitled to report Najib as a public official who was negligent during his time as prime minister and exposed the country to a legal claim of RM67.5 billion.
“With this in mind, I have asked PKR leaders and branches throughout the country to lodge a police report against Najib for his negligence during his time as prime minister, leading to the claim of the Sulu sultanate’s heirs.
“I have also extended this invitation to grassroot activists in Amanah and DAP across the country to come together with PKR to participate in this series of police reports,” he said in a statement today, attaching a draft of the police report that is to be handed in with it.
He said he himself, along with Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad would be lodging their reports at the Setiawangsa police station tomorrow at 11am.
On July 15, Rafizi said he intended to file a police report against the former PM over the failure and negligence that resulted in the assets of state oil firm Petronas vulnerable to confiscation around the world.
He said legal action was taken over the dispute with the heirs of the now-defunct Sulu sultanate ever since Najib’s time as prime minister despite his claims that the issue resulted from failures of the Pakatan Harapan government
Last Tuesday, the Paris Court of Appeal granted leave to Putrajaya’s application to suspend a previous ruling declaring Malaysia’s liability to a billion-ringgit settlement claimed by the Sulu sultan’s heirs.
Law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said on Wednesday that the leave meant the previous ruling was not enforceable in any country until an ultimatum is reached in Paris.
In 2013, the Najib administration ceased Malaysia’s annual cession payment of RM5,300 to the Sulu sultan heirs after an attack on Lahad Datu by self-described ruler Jamalul Kiram III.
In 2017, descendants of the sultanate initiated legal action against Malaysia over the matter, resulting in an arbitration ruling in their favour.
This allowed them to have Luxembourg authorities seize the assets of two Petronas subsidiaries on behalf of the Sulu sultan heirs in an effort to enforce an arbitration ruling they had secured against Malaysia.
The issue stems from an 1878 contract signed between the Sulu sultanate descendants’ ancestors and a British trading company, in which land in Sabah was leased in exchange for financial compensation.
